‘You came, then. I knew you would.’ Acknowledging the silently staring people all around, all pretending to be busy but watching intently out of the corners of their eyes, he winked. ‘Not much happens in Retford.’ He then blinked in surprise at the sight of her mother as well, but he swiftly remembered his manners and politely inclined his head. ‘Your ladyship. How lovely to see you again.’
‘The pleasure is all mine, Dr Warriner, I can assure you.’ Her mother grabbed him warmly with both hands and then kissed him on the cheek with what looked to Bella like genuine affection. ‘The more I learn of you, the more you strike me as a wholly lovely young man and one I have decided I heartily approve of.’
A little startled, Joe slanted a questioning glance to Bella while her mother threaded her arm through his. ‘I’m glad to hear it, my lady.’ The poor man looked quite bewildered by the sudden change of heart. ‘Will you still be joining me at my surgery, Lady Isabella?’
‘Of course she will. I’ve insisted on encroaching as I am eager to receive a dose of your miraculous cowpox, Dr Warriner, before it’s too late.’ Her mother’s voice was louder than was usual, no doubt to ensure those watching them with barely concealed interest in the market square as to her intentions. ‘It’s very popular in the capital, Dr Warriner. All the very best people are getting vaccinated. Who wouldn’t? What a wonderful discovery it is, to be sure, and in this day and age, when towns are becoming even more crowded than they were before, we need it more than ever. Why, I read only recently about an epidemic of smallpox in the East End of London only last year that killed thousands. Thousands! Can you imagine that?’
‘Unfortunately, I can, my lady. Ignorance and the cost of prevention mean the majority leave it off until it’s too late.’ He offered his spare arm to Bella and she happily took it. Joe was comforting and solid, and today she needed both. ‘I hope to avoid that here in Retford.’ Wearing two Beaumonts as bookends, he walked them across the market square towards his office. As they walked past, many of the traders removed their caps and mumbled my lady as she sailed by, their expressions running the gamut between curious and embarrassed. Bella could not tell whether they were embarrassed by her addled condition or at the way she had been treated by Dr Bentley, but a few did look impressed that she had shown up, just as Joe had said they would.
They hadn’t got halfway when the entire Warriner family appeared out of nowhere to join them. The Earl, Captain James Warriner and the youngest, Jake, took their places behind them, like a guard of honour. Letty and Cassie Warriner both commandeered Bella, grinning and chattering away as if yesterday the whole world had not found out she was addled and irrational. The solidarity and unquestioning show of support moved her and emotion tightened her throat. This was a public display of resilience in the face of adversity and one which said a great deal about the family. As it was meant to—it shamed the onlookers who had come to gawp and the square fell oddly quiet despite the number of people within.
Joe turned towards them as they reached the door. ‘Ladies and gentleman, in a few minutes I will be opening my doors and inviting all comers to be protected from smallpox. I sincerely hope to see all of you. However, I also understand some of you may still have reservations and some of you might be adamantly against it. All I would ask is you respect the decisions and wishes of all those who do wish to take up my offer. The nonsense of yesterday should never have happened, you know that, and I am sure, like me, you are disgusted by what transpired. It was not Retford’s finest hour.’ Several people glanced down at their feet, others nodded in agreement. Only a very few were affronted. ‘Should any of you have any questions about the procedure, then do come and see me this afternoon, where I will happily speak to individuals and apprise you of the facts. In the meantime, Lady Isabella has graciously offered to assist me in my endeavour, so if you will excuse us, the doors will open promptly at eight.’
What happened next was organisation of a military standard. It had apparently been decided that they would behave as if they were expecting hundreds. Rope lines were erected outside to ensure an orderly queue. Inside, a series of tables draped in pristine white cloths were already laden with bandages and bowls of Joe’s gin-laced water for washing. Jake and the Earl were to man carts which would travel around the outskirts of town and the rural farms beyond, bringing those unable to make the journey on foot directly to the square. Letty and Cassie, with her mother in tow, went outside to greet people and explain the procedure to them while Jamie’s role was to ensure there was, as he put it, no funny business. He planted himself between the roped-off lines at the surgery and the square and loomed menacingly. A few minutes later he was joined by Mellor. The two men most likely to terrify the naysayers of Retford now reassuringly stood guard. Mrs Patterson was in charge of keeping an accurate record and, as promised, Bella was to be Joe’s assistant, responsible for cleaning the area of the patient’s arm prior to and then binding the tiny wound after the procedure.
A few minutes to eight, when it was just the two of them left all alone in his office, Bella succumbed to the urge to move the lace panel aside and look out of the window. She was pleasantly surprised. At least ten people were standing in line. Before he spoke, she felt Joe come to stand behind her. Even though there were several inches between their bodies, hers was very aware of his. Goosebumps bloomed down her back and on her neck, making her flesh prickle in the most disconcerting manner—yet it wasn’t panic or fear which caused this reaction. It was simply him and the strange effect he had on her senses. Bella knew it was attraction. There could be no denying it. Somewhere in the last few weeks her mind had decided that Joe the man was neither her enemy nor a threat. He was kind, strong, loyal and...she couldn’t put into words the rest because the feelings were so new and unfamiliar. Even before the incident Bella had never had such a reaction to a man. It was more than respect and admiration, went further than friendship, and, at times like now, it was accompanied by need. Temptation. A desire to knock down a wall.
‘That’s a decent start. People are a bit like sheep. Where one goes, the others soon follow.’
His warm breath caressed her neck, sending shivers down her spine and to other places which shocked her. Was this desire now, too? ‘And you are a brilliant physician who inspires trust. That helps.’
‘You think I’m brilliant?’
‘Yes.’ Bella didn’t dare turn around. Turning around meant gazing into those soulful eyes and, while her skin was so sensitive and her pulse was fluttering, she didn’t trust herself to keep her reaction to him private.
‘I think you’re brilliant, too.’ Her head began to turn at the compliment and she saw he was smiling. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’ His deep blue eyes locked with hers and Bella had to fight the instinct to run as the usual panic began to claw in her gut.
Not now! Don’t spoil this lovely moment!
Before she could stop it, what she was suddenly thinking came out of her mouth.
‘Do you think I will get better? My irrational fear of men, that is?’ Because she wanted to. She wanted to feel brave enough to want a man’s touch. His touch.
Joe’s smile never faltered. ‘You’re not scared of me any more. In time, you will conquer all your fears.’
‘Do you think I will conquer my fear of...of the physical side of things, too?’
The smile disappeared, replaced instead by a solemn expression she couldn’t decipher. ‘One day...you will find a man you trust, and when you do, that side of things will develop naturally.’
You trust him.
‘You’ll remember how nice a simple kiss can be.’
‘No, I won’t. To do that, one would need an example to recall.’ Why was she telling him that? She could tell by his expression he was shocked by the admission, so she tried to be matter of fact. ‘I worry that I’ve built it up so much in my mind that it’s all so tainted by the incident, that I will never be able to move on.’ Bella closed her eyes, embarrassed by the admission and n
ot wanting to see the pity in his face. ‘I know I should face my fears.’ Although kissing him might not be so bad, she realised. A huge part of her wanted to. Really wanted to.
‘You should.’
She risked opening her eyes to see his so close and strangely darker than usual. He was still mere inches away, so close she could feel the warmth of his body. Her eyes dropped to his lips and she pulled them reluctantly back up. Her whole body felt odd. Heavy. Expectant. Her fingers itched to touch his face. Her lips felt swollen and hot. They wanted to be kissed even if her head wanted to run. ‘In the interests of science, and to help me demolish one of the irrational walls in my mind, I don’t suppose you would...’ Oh, good lord, was she now begging him to kiss her? How sad and pathetic was that? She’d bet Clarissa had never had to resort to begging to get a man to kiss her or had ever felt terrified at the prospect of a kiss. Mortified, she turned away, only to feel his palm touch her cheek and slowly turn it back. His eyes dropped to her lips and lingered. Then he dipped his head and softly pressed his mouth to hers.
Having nothing to compare it to, Bella was unprepared for the intensity of the experience. It was like tasting something delicious for the first time or the rush of excitement she had felt racing down the lane in his curricle. Her eyes fluttered closed and she sighed against his mouth, duplicating the way his lips brushed gently against hers. Her hands came to rest on his chest and she could feel the rapid beats of his heart against her fingers. Unconsciously she stepped closer and didn’t flinch when his hands came to rest on her hips.
Her breasts felt peculiar and needed to be touched, so Bella allowed herself to rest them against the hard wall of his chest, something which made him sigh, too. By the time the tip of his tongue brushed the seam of her mouth, she was past caring about anything except the surprising new sensations within her body. She mirrored the movement and the kiss turned from tentative to passionate. Her fingers were in his hair, his smoothed up her ribcage and over her back.
‘It’s eight o’clock.’ The opening door had them jumping apart and one look at Jake Warriner told her he knew exactly what they had just been doing, even though Joe was now several feet away and fiddling with the equipment on his table.
‘Splendid. Splendid.’ His eyes flicked to hers, he blinked and she wished she knew what he was thinking. ‘I suppose we should get started, then.’
* * *
Of all the things he had planned for today, Joe hadn’t been expecting that. To be honest, even if he had planned for it, he couldn’t have anticipated the ferocity of his reaction. His poor, shocked body was positively throbbing with need and his wits were so scrambled he could barely talk straight.
What the hell had just happened?
One minute they were looking at the people out of the window, and the next, nothing had existed except her. A simple, chaste, scientific kiss should not have such an explosive reaction, yet it had. More confusing was the way the kiss had made him feel. Since he had seen her distraught and demoralised on the side of the lane yesterday, Joe had been filled with the most possessive male urge to protect her. The healer in him had wanted to fix her and he had spent most of the night staring at the ceiling, his thoughts darting between worrying about her and ripping Bentley and that monster who had defiled her limb from limb for hurting her.
When she had stepped out of her carriage this morning, tentative and nervous, his desire to protect her had overruled all other thoughts in his head. His thoughts just now hadn’t been the slightest bit protective; they had been purely carnal. If he was brutally honest with himself, they still were. She was busying herself preparing for the stream of patients they were about to receive and all he could concentrate on was that kiss. Those lovely soft moans of passion, the way her body moulded itself to his, the delicious taste of her mouth—he’d been on fire in seconds and he sincerely doubted the flames were likely to be extinguished any time soon. Not when her lips were still so red and swollen from his kisses, her sweet scent was filling the air and tormenting his senses, and her breasts were rising and falling in time with her rapid breathing. Evidence of her quick and gloriously passionate response. To him.
Her fledgling passion had awakened something primal within him, something which made him ache to possess her, as well as protect her and claim her as his. He was certain he had never experienced desire so all-consuming. If Jake hadn’t interrupted them when he did, Joe’s greedy hands would have been all over her, filling themselves with her womanly curves, and he’d have inevitably pulled her body flush against his painful arousal and would’ve probably scared the poor girl to death in the process. Joe had never been so grateful and so furious at his younger brother in his entire life.
Or so baffled by what to do next.
Bella had asked him to kiss her—but in the interests of science, because she was distressed and wanted to get better. There was every chance it had been an experiment for her. Joe hadn’t kissed her in the name of science. He had kissed her because she had looked so damn beautiful with the sunlight behind her. Because he could think of nothing else but tasting that lush mouth at that precise moment.
Had it been the moment? Had his reaction occurred in the intense heat of it? She walked to the door and greeted their first patient. Joe watched the way her body moved, the way her mouth curved up as she spoke, her quiet dignity, her bravery, her generous, kind nature, her clever brain, and he felt it all in his groin and his heart. Not the moment, then, but her. Something he would need to ponder seriously later, once today was done. For now, he had a job to do and only hoped his unexpected case of rampant lust and his suddenly heightened feelings would allow him to do it properly.
Chapter Sixteen
By late afternoon, the steady stream of visitors to the surgery turned into a deluge as word filtered around the town that a great majority of people were daring to go against the explicit advice of the local cleric and were availing themselves of the free vaccine. It helped that the midday post also brought news of yet another reported case of smallpox, this time in Carlton-on-Trent, closer still to Retford. It confirmed Joe’s suspicion the disease would travel along the Great North Road. There had been a minor incident outside, when the Reverend Reeves had decided to issue a blistering sermon in the centre of the market square, but once the post arrived with the grave news and the constable had frogmarched the outraged vicar back to the rectory, more people were concerned about their lives than the prospect of growing a pair of cow’s horns, and the vicar’s prophecy of doom was largely ignored. Dr Bentley failed to materialise at all. Bella hoped that had something to do with her mother, who’d gone off to give him a piece of her mind before she went home, or better still because he was scared Joe might carry out his threat to tear the fool apart. He deserved to know what fear felt like.
To their credit, nobody treated Bella any different to usual. She caught the odd sideways glance, one or two expressions of embarrassment, but not one person said anything untoward or refused to allow her to treat them. If anything, they were nothing but kind. At Cassie Warriner’s insistence, they took a break for food and Joe decided they would be more effective if both of them administered the vaccine. He watched her closely with the first few patients, then in his typical delegating style left her to it.
She had no idea what he was thinking or even if he was thinking about the kiss they had shared. He never mentioned it once during the day. If anything, as far as Bella could tell, he was behaving as he always did, so perhaps she had imagined much of his reaction afterwards. Bella was hoping it had meant as much to him as it had to her, even though she had practically forced him into it in the name of science and pity. Regardless, it had meant something to her. It meant the whole world to her.
Not only did she now know she could endure a man’s kiss—Joe’s kiss—she could also enjoy it, if her body’s splendid reaction was any gauge. It renewed her hope she might be able to be intimate with a man one day. As long as that man was Joe. He was a strange and intoxica
ting combination of safe and addictive at the same time. Bella had experienced the first stirrings of passion—she was sure of it. With passion, the natural next step was intimacy, although she hadn’t really given much thought to either at the time. Her body’s reaction had been leading her. Not her broken head, nor her tender heart, but the gloriously physical response to a thoroughly wonderful kiss.
All day she had found herself stealing glances at him as he worked alongside her and wondering what would have happened had they not been interrupted. Would she have allowed his hands to roam freely across her body? Could she bear the feel of them on her skin? Her breasts? Just thinking about it made them feel heavy until her broken mind reminded her of the hands of that other man as it usually did and the irrational fear returned instantly. Her eyes flicked to Joe’s hands. Big, capable and suddenly all she could think about was the perfect way they had felt against her face. It was all so confusing.
‘That’s the last one.’ Mrs Patterson’s voice made her jump as Bella bandaged the boy’s arm she had just treated. ‘It’s past nine o’clock and you two need your rest. I’ve told the others to come back tomorrow.’
Beside her, Joe stretched and rotated his shoulders. ‘I am dead on my feet, so I dare say that makes sense.’
‘Shall I draw you a bath, Dr Warriner?’
His eyes flicked towards Bella nervously before he answered his housekeeper. ‘Perhaps after I have taken Lady Isabella home, Mrs Patterson.’
Little balloons of excitement at the prospect bubbled in her tummy only to be burst by the servant. ‘No need, Doctor. I took the liberty of summoning Lady Isabella’s carriage an hour ago. It is sat outside waiting for her in the square.’
‘Ah—good.’ He didn’t seem pleased. She knew him well enough now to know a false smile when she saw one, but she had no earthly idea if this was a positive or negative sign. Did he want to drive her home specifically? Had he things to say? ‘Well, then, I suppose I should see you to your carriage, Bella.’ As he didn’t meet her eye as he said this, she took it as a bad sign. Whatever he might want to say was probably not what she wanted to hear. An apology, maybe, or worse a castigation for the way they got carried away or because she had put him on the spot with her unusual request and he had felt beholden. Perhaps he had noticed the longing glances she had been throwing him all day and wanted to remind her of the fact he had done as she’d asked only in the interests of science to help her face her fears. A kindly experiment. Physician to patient. Explanations too awful to have to hear.
A Warriner to Tempt Her Page 16
